Everything was great at her White Bear Lake townhome for the first 12 years, Beverly Gutowski told a Ramsey County judge Thursday.
But then Christian Thomas Dahm entered the picture five years ago, moving into his parents’ Aspen Court townhome in the same complex. “It’s been a nightmare,” Gutowski, 73, said, adding that police were called to the four-plex dozens of times because of Dahm’s violent and lewd behavior and drug use.
Christian Thomas Dahm (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Things turned deadly the night of May 14, 2023. Dahm, while high on meth, accidentally started a fire in his parents’ garage. When responders got on scene around 11:30 p.m., the Dahms’ townhome was fully engulfed in flames, which were spreading to Gutowski’s unit and the two others.
Firefighters located Dahm’s 79-year-old mother, Patricia Dahm, in critical condition inside her townhome. She died four days later in the burn unit at Regions Hospital.
Judge Jacob Kraus sentenced Dahm to nearly eight years in prison Thursday after he pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter for the death of his mother, a retired elementary schoolteacher.
Dahm, who’s been imprisoned since June on an unrelated case, faced between 7½ years and 11 years in prison as part of a February plea agreement. Prosecutors asked for the 95-month sentence that Dahm was given.
The plea agreement also included paying restitution to the townhome owners. Kraus left restitution open for 60 days.
The sentence will run concurrent with a 5-year term Dahm received June 15 for violating his probation relating to a 2022 conviction for possessing ammunition by an ineligible person.
Patricia Dahm had taught in the White Bear Lake Area School District for 34 years, according to her obituary. In addition to her son, she is survived by her husband of 54 years, Les. On Thursday, the 83-year-old was in the courtroom gallery and wiped tears as his son read a statement before receiving his sentence.
Dahm expressed remorse for what happened to his mother — noting the fire occurred on Mother’s Day — and for what his father and neighbors have endured because of him.
“Before you pronounce your sentence,” Dahm told the judge, “I want you to know that I’ve already been sentenced forever. I am going to serve a life sentence for my actions. Every second of every day until my own life ends I will have to live with knowing what I did, not only to my mother, but what I did to my own father and the effects that my neighbors have felt.”
‘Lost everything’
Shortly after firefighters got to the townhome in the 2600 block of Aspen Court, just north of County Road D, Dahm’s father pointed at Dahm, who was on the back patio, and said, “He started the fire,” according to the criminal complaint.
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Dahm’s father said he and his wife decided to check on their son before going to bed because they believed he was high on meth and they were concerned. He said when he opened the service door to the garage, it appeared as though “everything exploded.” He saw his son run out of the garage.
When firefighters pulled Patricia Dahm from the fire, she had smoke coming from her mouth, the complaint says. An autopsy showed she died of complications of multiple burns and smoke inhalation.
Christian Dahm told police he was in the garage working on his fishing pole over a car hood before the fire started. He said he was using an oil pan and lit a cigarette with a torch and then “all of a sudden, there was a fire,” the complaint says.
The fire spread from one townhome to another, where KARE-TV anchor Rena Sarigianopoulos’ parents live, and she wrote on GoFundMe that their home was destroyed.
Another resident, Denise Cook, told Judge Kraus on Thursday that the fire displaced her and her family for nine months, that they were forced to stay in hotels and then at an apartment. She said she’s incurred out-of-pocket expenses after her insurance and will seek restitution.
Gutowski said she has “lost everything.” Before the fire her townhome was worth $300,000, she said, and now it’s estimated at $80,000. “So all the equity, everything we put into our home is gone,” she said. “And I’m angry.”
‘I created an enormous mess’
Dahm has an extensive criminal history dating back to 2005, when he got his first of five DWI convictions. He has four burglary convictions.
This week, Dahm’s attorney, Zach Van Cleve, asked Kraus for a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines, contending the offense was “less onerous” than typical second-degree manslaughter offenses, and that Dahm has shown remorse.
Van Cleve said in a court document that Dahm has struggled with substance abuse and mental health issues since his teenage years, and that he’s been in chemical dependency treatment at least seven times.
After Dahm’s brother was killed in an August 2022 motorcycle accident in North St. Paul, he turned to meth and other substances to cope, Van Cleve said. He was high on meth at the time of the fire, Van Cleve said.
“What everyone in this room knows,” Van Cleve said, “is that the punishment that Mr. Dahm is going to receive for the rest of his life, knowing that he started this fire that caused his mom’s death, is worse than anything that our court system can hand him.”
Dahm told Kraus that he now realizes how he’s been negligent throughout most of his adult life and created risk to others, whether it was with his DWIs or the fire.
“My actions have created victims directly and indirectly,” he said. “My mom is the primary victim here. There is nothing that I, nor anyone else can do to help her now. The real victim today is my father, who’s in court today. … I created an enormous mess everywhere. Complete destruction.”
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